Clothe yourselves with humility

In 1 Peter 5:5 Peter says, all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. The word for clothe describes tying on an apron, the sort a servant would knot around the waist before doing rough work. Then he quotes Proverbs 3:34: God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.

It is hard not to think that Peter had a particular picture in mind. John 13 tells how Jesus, on the last night, took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples' feet. Peter objected. He did not want his Lord in an apron. Jesus told him that unless he was washed, he had no part with him, and Peter, characteristically, then asked for a full bath. Whatever else Peter forgot, he did not forget that towel.

So when he tells the churches to tie on humility, he is describing something he saw. Humility is not a feeling of low self-worth. It is a garment you put on in order to serve, and it looks like a towel around the waist of the Son of God.

Verse 6 then says to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, that he may lift us up in due time. The hand is mighty. Being under it is not comfortable. But the lifting is promised, and the timing is his. Much of our anxiety comes from trying to do the lifting ourselves, on our schedule, and that is exactly the pride the proverb says God opposes.

Then, in the same breath, verse 7. Cast all your anxiety on him. Humility and the casting of worry belong together. A humble person has admitted that they cannot carry it all, and that admission is what frees them to throw it onto God. The proud have to keep carrying, because putting it down would mean admitting they could not.

The turn toward life is to tie on the apron today. Find one task that is beneath you, in your own estimation, and do it without being asked, without mentioning it afterward. Then take the worry that has been riding on your back all week and throw it, physically if it helps, with a prayer that names it. He cares for you. That is the reason the garment fits.